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Doctors have used a new catheter-based approach to draw out resistant pockets of infection that settle in the heart, known as right-sided infective endocarditis, without surgery. Unless treated quickly, the walled-off infections can grow, severely damaging heart valves and potentially affecting other organs as well. In a recent study, over 90% of the participants had their infection cleared, and they had lower in-hospital mortality compared to those whose infections remained. The research is part of a Mayo Clinic-led study across 19 U.S. sites involving patients who were not good candidates for surgery and whose right-sided heart infections had not responded...

A troubling trend in Americans’ heart health is emerging, and doctors are aiming to bring more awareness to the problem. While death rates from infective endocarditis have generally declined across the U.S. over the past two decades, they have alarmingly increased among young adults aged 25 to 44. This research, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, underscores a public health issue that intersects with the ongoing opioid crisis. Infective endocarditis, often referred to as bacterial endocarditis, is a rare but serious condition where bacteria enter the bloodstream and infect the heart lining, valves, or blood vessels. It...

As a believer, I always see miracles and good things when God and prayer are involved. Tommorrow, at 1030hrs CST, my mother, Ann Bryan, will undergo heart surgery to replace/repair her mitrol valve in her left ventricle. She has been in the hospital for ten (10) days at Baptist Hospital in Little Rock, AR under intensive antibiotics for a diagnosis of endocarditis caused by a strep infection in her blood, and on her heart valve. Anyways, we believe in the power of prayer, and I have personally witnessed miracles here on FR. Any additional prayers sent her way would be...